So funny thing happened — I was doing this weekly comic review called “The Doomino Effect” and then I stopped doing it for like two years.

Speaking of looking back at the past, that leads me to Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales. Like Justice League #1, this story seems to be taking place in the past of The New 52. Unlike Justice League, this seems to be taking place more than 5 years in the past, because Superman has a silly cuffed-jeans costume. They’re also big loose rolls and not tight rolls, so I’m thinking that makes it late 90s. I might need some backup on that one though.

I like this Superman. He seems to have a little more of a social justice angle to his “I am a Real American” schtick, which makes for something with a tinge of menace and therefore more fun than Super Boy Scout. Super Boy Scouts are lame. but as much as I do like this new version of Superman, I just feel like I’m reading another All-Star Superman or Superman: Birthright or some other reimagining of the Superman myth that really has no bearing on continuity.

I realize this is Action Comics #1, so it obviously is new continuity, but it just doesn’t feel like it. Maybe it’s just too nuanced and well-written, and I’m aware of the fact that Tony Daniel is writing several books in The New 52, so obviously “well-written” and “nuanced” are not going to be universal themes throughout the relaunch. But more than that, it’s just a gut feeling. Like “Yeah, I enjoy this, but what does it matter?”
(more…)

continued from part 1.

JIM DOOM: I will go through this 52 preview book, say the books that are coming out, and we say if we think we’ll give them a try or not.

DOOM DeLUISE: Ok, I’ll play that game.

JIM DOOM: And I should mention, for anyone listening in the Omaha area, that Legend Comics is doing a deal where you get one free 52 #1 issue for every three that you buy.

DOOM DeLUISE: That’s a great deal.

JIM DOOM: So for example, you walk to the counter with Action #1, Batman #1, Detective #1, and Aquaman #1, you get one of those for free. And yeah, it’s a cool deal, but I was too dumb to understand it.

DOOM DeLUISE: Haha

[audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: The guy at the counter was like “Are you going to be buying multiple #1s?” and I was like “Of this book?” and then he tried to explain, like “For every three #1s you buy, you get one free.” And I was like “Well screw that, I don’t want four copies of this book.”

So then he picked up the list and had to explain it to me slowly so I would understand.

I’m kind of dense sometimes.
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JIM DOOM: Hey, let’s finish reviewing Captain America.

DOOM DELUISE: I need to find [our first attempt at our review] so I can get caught up. I forget what I was having a hard time explaining.

JIM DOOM: Or we could just move on to talking about specific things and you can build a segue between the old part and the new part later. This will also make it seem like you got the last word in on whatever the topic was!

DOOM DELUISE: I found it. Re-reading the review so far is really frustrating.

JIM DOOM: haha, I bet.

DOOM DELUISE: I don’t want to be rude, but it was like you were ignoring half of what I was saying and then faulting my logic and trying to catch me in contradictions.

JIM DOOM: Is this the start of the review?

DOOM DELUISE: …while fully ignoring almost everything I was saying.

JIM DOOM: Well, I wasn’t trying to catch you in contradictions. I thought you were contradicting yourself, and I couldn’t latch onto what your actual problem with the movie was. So there was no trying to catch contradictions. They were landing in my lap.

Perfect segue — I wasn’t understanding you, so why don’t you say “Okay, let’s talk about some specifics.”

DOOM DELUISE: No, no. they weren’t actual contradictions. You were suggesting they were, but that’s because you weren’t paying attention to what I was saying.

JIM DOOM: …Then we can talk about specifics. Because as I remember it, we were just floating in generalities, and there’s no way to really discuss, “This movie was a total failure!”

DOOM DELUISE: OK, let’s take a ten minute break and then start completely over. Trust me, what we have so far is a total wash.

JIM DOOM: Jesus so we get to start all over with you saying the movie is a total failure and I say it’s not? Hooray.

DOOM DELUISE: I was hoping we could be more succinct with our arguments so that we’re not just bickering back and forth in the most annoying way possible. It’s not fun to read what we have so far.

JIM DOOM: Well I’m sure it isn’t for you, considering you were contradicting yourself all over the place.

DOOM DELUISE: Right.

Do me a favor, before we start up again. Find the old transcript, read it over, pay attention to what you wrote, and try to pretend that you’re not being an obstinate dick.

JIM DOOM: I don’t really know what you’re talking about now. I just read it, and if this really bothers you, I think we should just forget it. This doesn’t read any different than any of our other conversations when you lead with sweeping, damning generalizations and I try to draw details out of you. And if you came out with the same points this morning, I’d probably reply exactly the same.

DOOM DELUISE: OK, let’s start over, and I’ll try to steer clear of generalizations.

So, we both saw Captain America: The First Avenger, and the one point we can probably agree upon is that it’s a movie!

JIM DOOM: Bullshit! (more…)

I hated Transformers 2 so much I blogged about it twice.

But I was still determined to see Transformers 3. After seeing it last night, I have to say that it’s probably my favorite of the series. But it was still awful.

I’ll start with the good, because there was quite a bit that I enjoyed (and I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but be warned - spoilers follow). (more…)

Rank of every comic movie ever made, as listed on Metacritic:

DOOM DELUISE: This past weekend, X-Men: First Class came out, and the two of us went and saw it together on Sunday. Immediately after leaving the theatre, what were some of your initial impressions, as far as what worked, what things you enjoyed, and what you felt came up short?

DOOM, WHERE’S MY CAR?: Well, overall I’d say it was a good movie, very enjoyable, but a bit too long.

DD: It clocks in at 132 minutes, for the record.

DWMC: I loved the casting of Magneto, and Professor X was good too.

See, my internal clock put it at forever long, so that’s interesting.

I loved the first hour, but as we moved away from Magneto’s revenge story and got swept up in the scope of history, it began to feel a bit muddled.

What about you?
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JIM DOOM: So Thor.

I’m not sure what to say to open this other than that I didn’t read much of anything Thor related ever except for when he’d show up in big crossovers and get killed or something.

So I feel that my thoughts are solely based in reflections on Thor: the movie and not Thor: the comic book adaptation.

What’s your Thor background going into this?

And feel free to be long-winded because I need another beer.

DOOM DeLUISE: Very limited. I read some Mighty Thor comics back in the early 90s, when he had a big beard. Also, I remember him being really cool in the Return of the Hulk, the made-for-TV movie that was an extension of the Incredible Hulk TV show, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferigno.

I knew about the Bifrost Bridge, and I knew most of the characters from the movie, but I can’t say I’ve ever been an avid Thor reader.

That said, I think his movie is super fun.
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MARVEL EDITOR: Come in, Mr. Yu. Have a seat. How was your drive in today? We have a lot of…sorry, excuse me, would you like a cup of coffee?

LEINIL YU: Sure.

MARVEL EDITOR: Ok, great. Like I was saying, we have a lot of important things, exciting things, to discuss with you today. I have had an eye on your work for awhile now. You’ve been doing some amazing things with those things that you’ve been doing.

LEINIL YU: Thank you, sir. I try to–

MARVEL EDITOR: Look, I don’t want to jerk you around. You’re hot stuff right now. We want to give you your choice of whatever project you want. Whatever you want, Mr. Yu, it’s all yours. So tell me, answer me that: What do you want?

LEINIL YU: Well, to be frank–thank you, wow, that’s hot–to be frank, sir, I’ve always admired Wolverine. I loved drawing him in New Avengers. Just something about him has always–

MARVEL EDITOR: Yeah.

LEINIL YU: Resonated. I mean, with the claws and the non-stop action and all the places around the world that he’s traveled to. Really, any place, any time, Wolverine is endlessly fascinating, both as a character and as a person to draw.

MARVEL EDITOR: So, I’m hearing a lot of interest in a Wolverine project. Well, I’ll tell you what. Your wish is my something something, however that goes. I’m sure you’re familiar with the expression. It’s yours. Wolverine is yours.

LEINIL YU: Oh, wow. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you! I won’t let you down. This is easily the most exciting moment of my professional career so far. Finally, I’ll get a chance to really capture everything about that character that has appealed to so many fans over the years. His brute strength and masculinity, his, well, I don’t want to forget the claws, his ability to just tear his enemies to bits. Wow, I’m just… I’m floored. This is going to be so exciting, I promise.

MARVEL EDITOR: Well… about that. Here’s what we have in mind. I had my assistant write it up this morning. Here, take a look. (more…)

I just got home from the midnight showing of the brand-new sure-to-be-blockbuster Iron Man 2. I’m going to attempt to give you my reaction without necessarily giving anything away (because, really, where’s the fun in that?), but you could probably argue that any sort of reaction to the movie could be considered a potential spoiler.

With this in mind, I’m going to try to save my thoughts on the movie until after the jump; however, I can’t just put the jump in here, because then the format of the post will be goofy looking. Skip down the page to the jump if you want. I’m just gonna waste some time until then.

Before I went to the theater tonight, I re-watched the original Iron Man film. Thought you might like to know that. Man, I really like that movie. So good. I especially like the ending. What a great way to OK that’s enough, let’s jump into this. (more…)

Welcome to the latest installment of “Doom and Doomer,” in which members of the Legion take a look at comics on the big screen. Tonight, your participants are Jim Doom and Doom DeLuise, looking at the new Kick-Ass movie, starring Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Nicolas Cage, based on the comic created by Mark Millar, written and directed for the big screen by Matthew Vaughn.

WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

DOOM DELUISE: A couple of nights ago, you sent me a text message that read, “Holy crap, Kickass is amazing.” Care to expand on that? What do you think worked so well about this movie?

JIM DOOM: Well, to start with, I think if we’d have had this discussion Saturday night instead of right now, things would be a little different.

But I can’t deny that I loved the movie and more specifically, I loved the experience of watching the movie.

I knew nothing of the source material. I don’t have the grudge against Mark Millar that many seem to have, but I’m no huge fan either. But something co-created by John Romita, Jr. doesn’t exactly inspire me either. So I’d never had even the slightest interest in picking up the books.

Which probably helped me, because I had no idea what was going to happen, and I thought the movie did a fantastic job of staying relatively unpredictable (at least when it needed to be), keeping the adrenaline rush, and using humor to make it all seem so oddly real.

Also, I thought the casting was fantastic. I have no idea who that kid was that played Kick-Ass, but he was really good.

I don’t want to cover everything in my opening statement. What did you think? (more…)